Barry Melek Electric Train Sets

Caboose Red

Through Oregon's Hood River Valley with the Mount Hood Railroad

When the sky’s impenetrable misty white and gray quilt, draping the silver Columbia River, had torn apart and revealed an illustrious blue, the daily excursion train from Hood River to Odell, operated by the Mount Hood Railroad, began to accept passengers from its historic depot.

                The Oregon and Washington Railroad and Navigation Company (OWR & NC) Craftsman-style railroad depot itself, constructed in 1911 and now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, had replaced the original 1882 Queen Anne-style building and facilitated growth of the town’s thriving fruit, timber, and tourism industries.  The 120-passenger waiting room, considerably larger than most concurrent public facilities, had featured a men’s smoking room and both ladies’ and men’s toilets.  Since 1987, it has served as the Mount Hood Railroad’s headquarters.

                Pulled by the dark red, yellow, and turquoise-painted diesel-electric engine #02, today’s train complement had included open-air car 1056 designated “Lookout Mountain,” snack car 1080, passenger coach 1070 “Katharine,” and caboose 1040.

                An initial jolt, signaling car coupling tension, preceded the almost imperceptible backward glide of the train from the Hood River station, as it inched up the shallowly-inclining track past the dining car rolling stock and over the black, wrought iron Hood River-spanning bridge.  The river, once the location of the Lewis and Clark expedition, appeared a dark green flow of life whose white-exploding rock divisions, characteristic of life’s own necessary path deviations and a person’s protests as a result of them, had been sun-glinted.

                Penetrating denser vegetation, the track paralleled the river whose small rapids metamorphosed the water into turbulent white fury.  The Mt. Hood National Forest formed the density in the distance.

                It is from this forest, in essence, that the Mount Hood Railroad had emanated.  The Lost Lake Lumber Company, whose Columbia and Hood River location had initially provided significant economic and employment contribution to the Hood River community, had begun to decline when log transfer from the forest to the actual sawmill had become increasingly difficult, and an ultimate sale of it seemed the only lucrative exit.  Utah lumberman David Eccles, who had purchased the failing concern, had remedially advocated the construction of a dam, which would have facilitated lumber transport by means of log flotation, but three local businessmen thwarted the effort by quickly obtaining a 99-year lease on the intended site and announced construction of their own 35-foot, power-generating facility.

                Eccles, who had equally used short-line logging railroads to transfer lumber to his other sawmills, circumvented the countermove by relocating the mill 16 miles up river and laying track to connect the two sites by rail.

                Construction of an east side route, which would channel the pending railroad through area fruit orchards, would ensure its viability as both a passenger and freight line, and the 150-strong workforce, living in six, strategically-positioned camps, drove the first stake in April of 1905.  Seven months later, in November, the first locomotive had traveled as far as the Hood River Bridge, and by February of the following year, the Japanese track-laying crew had extended the line as far as Odell, destination of today’s excursion train, 8.5 miles from its origin.  Dee, location of the new sawmill, had been reached one month later, although the eventual 22-mile stretch to Parkdale, gateway to Mt. Hood, had only been opened to the public in 1910.

                The present diesel-electric engine had been the ultimate in design technology to have plied these rails, the first two locomotives having been 37-year-old, Union Pacific-acquired Baldwin Consolidation 2-8-0 units which had been retired in 1916 and 1917, respectively, and had been intermittently replaced by two similarly second-hand powerplants until the first newly-acquired Baldwin 2-8-2 had arrived.

                Reducing speed and still moving in a backward direction, the Mount Hood train operating the May 2008 run approached the dual-tracked switchback, which would ultimately allow it to pull its meager chain of cars in a forward direction.  One of only five remaining US switchbacks, it had originated as a turntable.  Because the initial steam engines had to trail their steam emissions behind them over their cab boxes and therefore always had to pull their cars in a forward direction, the turntable had facilitated this earlier technology until the 1950 diesel engine replacements had obviated its need.  The original, 13-car switchback had been expanded to encompass 18 cars with the Union Pacific’s 1968 acquisition of the railroad.

                Backing on to the single spur, and clearing the switchback “fork,” engine 02, now poised to commence its climb in a forward, car-pulling direction, reinitiated movement, penetrating the dense lodgepole pine of the Hood River Valley.

                Approaching Highway 35, the train followed the 14-degree-curved track, the line’s sharpest, traversing the wooden railroad trestle and paralleling Whiskey Creek, once the location of applejack production.  Moving in a southerly direction, it ate a considerably steep gradient.

                The concession car, featuring an arched ceiling with periodic light fixtures; old fashioned, wallpaper-adorned wooden sidewalls; brass lamps; and two- and four-seat wooden tables, sported a center snack bar and counter.  My purchased continental breakfast on the 10:00 a.m. run included hot cinnamon rolls dipped in vanilla frosting and cranberry juice.

                During the ten-year period between 1906 and 1916, the current tracks had supported intermodel service when conventional rail cars had been linked to a White-designed rail-bus whose original wheels and tires had been retrofitted with flanged steel units to accept the rails.  After the acquisition of a second, newly purchased sightseeing vehicle, the railroad had operated four daily round-trips between Hood River and Parkdale.  The succeeding, 30-passenger Mack jitney, with an upholstered, Pullman-resembling interior, had provided 13 years of service until its 1935 fire destruction at Summit Station.  Extensive refurbishment ultimately earned it a place on the National Historic Register.

                Threading its way through peach and cherry orchards, the present-day, four-car train moved past carpeted hills whose bases had been woven with brown and green tapestries proudly guarded on either of their sides by tall, dark green needle pine sentinels.

                Periodically piercing the late-morning with its metallic, hair-raising whistle, the vintage train lumbered through the town of Pine Grove, now 5.6 miles from Hood River at a 608-foot elevation, lurching and clanking on its longitudinal axis.  The sky, barely marred by a few cotton puffs, had transformed into an intense blue.

                The smooth, inverted, bowl-shaped Van Horn Butte, beyond Pine Grove, had been one of the small volcanic vents from which lava had flowed to form Mt. Hood, forcing the Columbia River to move to its present more northerly location in the Hood River Valley.  Mt. Hood itself, wearing its silky, glistening white shawl of snow, loomed in front of the locomotive.

Views from the cupola of the caboose, which trailed the three passenger cars, revealed their locomotive-mimicked, spring-loaded reactions, as if they had comprised a long, iron tail, penetrating the sometimes thick pine and orchard vegetation on the single track toward the snow-draped mountain silhouette.  The air, although crystal clear, exuded the aroma of distantly burning firewood.

New Creek, which had been used to power the Hood River Valley’s first sawmill and served in that capacity for a quarter of a century, passed under the track.

Mohr, 6.8 miles from Hood River, had been named after the family which had planted the area’s first orchard.

Pursuing the single track, which presently multiplied into three, the Mount Hood train crept into Lentz Station, which had originally been called “Sherman Spur,” and disconnected its diesel engine.  Moving past the now motionless cars on the side line, it reattached itself behind the caboose.  So configured, it would push the train the final mile to Odell, its destination.

Gently prodded forward, the dark green coaches almost imperceptibly inched over the silver rails horizontally supported by the dry, wooden crossbeams, passing the track switch and reintegrating themselves on the single spur.  Re-establishing speed, the train clanked past the wood-scented lumber yard in the crystal, pine-laced Pacific Northwest air toward the multiply-shaded green tapestry covering the mountains ahead and Odell, the end of today’s run and once almost the end of the line’s track.

When the Diamond Fruit Growers had centralized their operation in Odell, eliminating the Dee-to-Parkdale stretch of track, the Union Pacific Railroad had estimated that it could garner a $150,000 profit in exchange for its smelted steel, a decision consistent with its 1986-1987 strategy of divesting itself of 87 of its feeder line railroads.  But Hood River County saw the move as nothing short of a loss due to the railroad’s inability to continue to make its economic contribution.

A newly created rail company, the Mount Hood Railroad, had been touted as the Union Pacific’s successor and shares were purchased by the fruit and lumber companies lining its route, which had significant stakes in its continued operation.  Bus transfer from Parkdale, its terminus, had equally facilitated passenger travel to Timberline Lodge, a National Historic Landmark, thus enabling the railroad to link two of Oregon’s most major tourist attractions: Mount Hood and the Columbia River Gorge.

The Union Pacific acquisition, however, carried one stipulation with it: the local Hood River Group, eager to retain service at the end of the line from Dee to Parkdale, would either have to buy the entire 22-mile track from Hood River or forfeit the opportunity to retain the railroad’s economic contribution to the valley.

After significant effort, agreement, and capital, the purchase transaction had been consummated on November 2, 1947, and the Mount Hood Railroad, the very concern on which I rode today, had been born.

Rotating its wheels with ever-decreasing power, engine 02 nudged its short, historic passenger coach chain into Odell parallel to the concrete strip serving as its platform at 11:15 a.m., now 8.5 miles from its origin at a 712-foot elevation, and screeched its brakes only yards short of the main road-imbedded track.

Named after William S. Odell, who had settled here in 1861 after traveling from California, the current, single-street town, featuring a small supermarket, church, and gas station, had initially served as a gathering place for Native Americans and had later been used as a Hudson’s Bay Company trail between the Dalles and Ft. Vancouver.

Descending the three steps from coach 1070 to the street-level, I looked back at the short train of open and enclosed cars and cabooses which had transported me from the Columbia River today and somehow knew that the journey had represented its more than a century of geographical journeys and rail line evolutions.  The tracks, having been operated by the Oregon and Washington Railroad and Navigation Company, the Union Pacific Railroad, and the present Mount Hood Railroad, had transported lumber, freight, passengers, and tourists.  The line had been short, but its history had been long.  Like life, it would continue, as long as a purpose had been found for it.  Unlike life, it had been able to determine what that purpose had been.

Walking from the platform toward the tiny town of Odell, above whose surrounding pine tree tops the majestic, snow-covered peak of Mt. Hood triumphantly rose, I disappeared into the train-deposited crowd.

About the Author

A graduate of Long Island University-C.W. Post Campus with a summa-cum-laude BA Degree in Comparative Languages and Journalism, I have subsequently earned the Continuing Community Education Teaching Certificate from the Nassau Association for Continuing Community Education (NACCE) at Molloy College, the Travel Career Development Certificate from the Institute of Certified Travel Agents (ICTA) at LIU, and the AAS Degree in Aerospace Technology at the State University of New York – College of Technology at Farmingdale. Having amassed almost three decades in the airline industry, I managed the New York-JFK and Washington-Dulles stations at Austrian Airlines, created the North American Station Training Program, served as an Aviation Advisor to Farmingdale State University of New York, and devised and taught the Airline Management Certificate Program at the Long Island Educational Opportunity Center. A freelance author, I have written some 70 books of the short story, novel, nonfiction, essay, poetry, article, log, curriculum, training manual, and textbook genre in English, German, and Spanish, having principally focused on aviation and travel, and I have been published in book, magazine, newsletter, and electronic Web site form. I am a writer for Cole Palen’s Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome in New York. I have made some 350 lifetime trips by air, sea, rail, and road.

Melissa And Doug Chunky Scene - Red Caboose $9.99 Melissa And Doug Chunky Scene - Red Caboose

Chunky Scene Puzzle - Red Caboose $9.49 All aboard for creative puzzle play! Toddlers will delight in the putting together this 6-piece scene with a red caboose in the countryside.

Little Red Caboose $9.56 A little red caboose thinks nobody cares for him until he prevents his train from slipping backwards down a mountain. Publication Date: 1986/06/01 Binding Type: Hardcover Language: English Depth: 0.25 Width: 6.50 Height: 8.00

Red Caboose Hobbies Oval Ornament by CafePress $12.5 Red Caboose - A little red caboose framed by a blue moon, atop railroad tracks. For lovers of the rails and train enthusiasts everywhere.A little red caboose framed by a blue moon, atop railroad tr Hobbies Oval Ornament Instantly accessorize bare wall-space with our Oval Ornament. Makes great room or office accessories, fun favors for birthday parties, wedding or baby shower Ornaments, or adding a unique, special touch to gift-wrapped packages. Comes with its own festive

Magnetic Name Train Caboose $4.95 Let the name train pull into the station displaying your child's name. Brightly colored wooden letters lock together with magnets. Add an engine and caboose (sold separately) to complete the train! The wheels really turn and are compatible with many popular wooden train tracks. This is a great gift for children, a newborn's nursery, or even adult train buffs. Pieces are quality crafted of solid rock maple with a nontoxic finish. Letters and colors will vary: red, orange, yellow, green, or purple. Made in USA. Age 3 and up. Specify letters when ordering. Letters: 2 1/2" high. Engine & Caboose: 2" high.

Maple Landmark 10120 NAMETRAIN COLOR CARS CABOOSE $18.85 NameTrains Accessory Vehicle. Complete your train with our little red caboose. Nontoxic color and finish for ages 3 and up.

A Bright Red Caboose and a Flower Bed Compete for Vivid Color $39.99 Stephen St. John A Bright Red Caboose and a Flower Bed Compete for Vivid Color - Photographic Print

Red Orange Caboose Hobbies Keepsake Box by CafePress $28.5 I love trains. That is what this caboose photo tells everyone, and you don't have to clutter it with the love heart. Just having this caboose photo is showing your passion for all trains. Hobbies Keepsake Box This tile box is perfect for stylishly storing knick-knacks, jewelry, or any precious keepsake. Made of solid lacquered Alderwood. Measures 5 1/4 sq. x 2 1/8 with a 4 1/4 tile and hinged lid.

Red Orange Caboose Hobbies Tote Bag by CafePress $21 I love trains. That is what this caboose photo tells everyone, and you don't have to clutter it with the love heart. Just having this caboose photo is showing your passion for all trains. Hobbies Tote Bag Our 100% cotton canvas tote bags have plenty of room to carry everything you need when you are on the go. They include a bottom gusset and extra long handles for easy carrying. 10 oz heavyweight natural canvas fabric. Full side and bot

The Little Red Caboose $2.5 By Mary Leaf. For piano. FJH Written for You Piano Solos. Single. Early Elementary. Single sheet. Published by The FJH Music Company Inc

Bachmann BAC70751 N Wide Vision Caboose Up $20.74 Caboose is Yellow with Union Pacific painted in Red on each side. Road is painted in Red on both sides. A Gray wide vision box is on the caboose. Compatible with all N scale equipment. Detailed panel lines give a realistic look. Detailed chassis. Couplers on each end of car. Ladders are located on each end of car. Windows are located on all four sides of the caboose. Metal wheels attached to Black trucks. Packaged in a hard plastic clear case. Scale: N 1/160. Length: 3-1/4" (8.2cm). Width: 3/4" (1.9cm). Height: 1" (2.5cm).

Boston Red Sox MLB All Star Express Wooden Train Caboose $7.99 *Compatible with all wooden track styles *Includes 1 Caboose and a RR crossing sign with the team logo *Brand new in manufacturers packaging

Caboose Hobbies Black Cap by CafePress $15 Ride the Rails A little red caboose decorates this black cap. For lovers of the rails and train enthusiasts everywhere. Cafepress quality items make unique and stylish gifts. Hobbies Black Cap . Top it off in our structured black cap made of sturdy, durable brushed canvas. 100% cotton breathes for year-round comfort. Adjustable closure with a low profile crown. Images are permanently adhered with a sturdy patch. Look cool on bad hair days or w

Costumes 174199 Caboose Empty Favor Boxes $21.18 These Caboose Empty Favor Boxes (4 count) are shaped like a red train caboose. Simply fill with goodies you mix and match from our huge selection of favors and prizes. Package includes 4 empty boxes. Each measures 6 Wide x 4 High x 3 Deep. Adult assembly required. Look for related railroad products (sold separately).

Caboose $103.56 A caboose or brake van or guards van is a manned rail transport vehicle coupled at the end of a freight train. Although cabooses were once used on nearly every freight train, their use has declined and they are seldom seen on trains, except on locals and smaller railroads. Author: Miller, Frederic P./ Vandome, Agnes F./ McBrewster, John Binding Type: Paperback Number of Pages: 156 Publication Date: 2010/04/27 Language: English Dimensions: 5.98 x 9.01 x 0.36 inches

S P Whistle Stop 26796 Painted Unlettered Caboose Red $69.05 Caboose is painted caboose red. Separate passenger and baggage compartments. Equipped with low inverted arch bar trucks. Classic amber LED interior lighting. Cupola seats. Wood grain floor detailing. Pot belly stove and piping. Removable cupola and roof. Textured roof. RP25 wheel contours. EZ Mate Mark II couplers. Scale: HO 1/87. Length: 63/4 (171.45mm).

Bachmann Williams BAC18449 Ho Bobber Caboose PaintedUnlettered $28.93 This HO Scale Bachmann Silver Series Rolling Stock Features an Unlettered Bobber Caboose. Compatible with any HO scale model railroad equipment. Fully assembled Silver Series car. Fine line moldings create an authentic appearance. Blackened machinedmetal wheels with RP25 contours. Body mounted couplers. Nonmagnetic blackenedbrass axles with needlepoint bearings. Added weight for optimum tracking. Celcon trucks. Detailed black underframe. Body color is red with a black roof and railings and red grabrails. Caboose is packed in a plastic tray and viewed through a windowed cardboard box. Includes: One HO Scale Bobber Caboose (Unlettered). Scale: HO 1:87. Length: 3 (7.6cm). Width: 11/4 (3cm). Height: 2 (4.9cm)

Maple Landmark 12120 NAMETRAIN TIMBERTOOTS CABOOSE $17.94 Little red cabooses to go with our TimberToot letters. Crafted from maple with a nontoxic clear finish and the caboose printed on the front. Magnets allow you to attach cars to form a train. Car measures 1 3/4 high. Recommended for children ages 3 and up.

Maple Landmark 50352 Caboose Checkers 12 Piece Red $25.16 Have fun playing Checkers with these beautiful wooden checkers. Set of 12 red caboose checkers. Made in the USA. Made with the Best Quality Material with your child in mind. Top Quality Children s Item. Satisfaction Ensured. Great Fun item

Pennsylvania Caboose Hobbies Throw Pillow by CafePress $20 Abstract photo art of a red caboose Hobbies Throw Pillow Add stylish fun to any room with our roomy Throw Pillow. It measures a sprawling 18 X 18 with an 11 X 11 image area so you can lounge in comfort. It's made of ultra-soft brushed twill with a sturdy canvas image area. Ships with pil

S P Whistle Stop 16852 Northeast Steel Caboose Lehigh Valley Red N $30.38 This is the N Scale Lehigh Valley Northeast Steel Caboose from Bachmann. Suitable for Ages 14 and Up. NMRA profile wheels. Needlepoint axles. Bodymounted EZ Mate Mark II couplers. Includes: One Lehigh Valley Northeast Steel Caboose.

S P Whistle Stop 16806 Northeast Steel Caboose Painted Unlettered HO $36.45 This is the HO Scale Painted Red and Unlettered Northeast Steel Caboose from the Bachmann Silver Series. Suitable for Ages 14 and Older. Blackened metal wheels. Body mounted couplers. Nonmagnetic axles. Includes: One Painted Red and Unlettered Northeast Steel Caboose.

S P Whistle Stop 16802 Northeast Steel Caboose Lehigh Valley HO $36.45 This is the HO Scale Lehigh Valley (Red) Northeast Steel Caboose from the Bachmann Silver Series. Suitable for Ages 14 and Older. Blackened metal wheels. Body mounted couplers. Nonmagnetic axles. Includes: One Lehigh Valley (Red) Northeast Steel Caboose.

S P Whistle Stop 16805 Northeast Steel Caboose Norfolk and Western HO $36.45 This is the HO Scale Norfolk and Western (Red) Northeast Steel Caboose from the Bachmann Silver Series. Suitable for Ages 14 and Older. Blackened metal wheels. Body mounted couplers. Nonmagnetic axles. Includes: One Norfolk and Western (Red) Northeast Steel Caboose.

S P Whistle Stop 16856 Northeast Steel Caboose Painted Unlettered N $30.38 This is the N Scale Painted Red and Unlettered Northeast Steel Caboose from Bachmann. Suitable for Ages 14 and Up.

Bachmann Williams BAC93870 G 8 Wheel Caboose Painted Unlettered $103.09 Large Scale Caboose with Center Cupola Detailed Interior Metal Wheels and Operating Knuckle Couplers. Compatible with any G scale equipment. Detailed oxide red plastic body is molded to look like wood. Black roof roofwalk chimney ladders grab rails railings and brake wheel. No numbers or road name. Detailed interior may be seen through clear plastic windows on cupola and caboose body. All metal wheels. Operating couplers. Detailed chassis and underframe. INCLUDES: One G Scale Center Cupola Wood Caboose (Unlettered). REQUIRES: G Scale Model Train Equipment. Scale: G 1/22.5. Length: 147/8 (37.8cm). Width: 41/8 (10.5cm). Height: 71/4 (18.4cm).

Caboose of Modern Train $39.99 Caboose of Modern Train - Giclee Print

S P Whistle Stop 17701 36 ft. Wide Vision Caboose UP $29.36 This is Bachmann s Premium HO Scale Silver Series Union Pacific 36 Wide Vision Caboose. Fully assembled rolling stock. Blackened machinedmetal wheels with RP25 contours. Body mounted couplers. Nonmagnetic blackenedbrass axles with needlepoint bearings. Celcon Barber Caboose trucks. Detailed underframe. Featured roadname: Union Pacific (painted red). Designated road number: UP 25743 (painted red). Paint scheme consists of two colors: yellow red. Free rolling wheels. Added weight for optimum tracking. Your caboose is tightly fitted within a platic tray which slides into a windowed cardboard box for storage. Length: 43/4 (12cm). Width: 11/4 (3.5cm). Height: 2 (5.4cm). One HO Scale 36 Wide Vision Caboose (Union Pacific).

Melissa and Doug 3754 Chunky Scene Red Caboose $22.94 As the train rolls through the countryside toddlers will want to get on board with this chunky puzzle Matching is made easy with fullcolor pictures beneath the pieces and the individual pieces can stand upright for imaginative play. Dimensions: 10.75 x 12 x 1 Packaged. Recommended Ages: 2+ years.

S P Whistle Stop 93870 EightWheel Caboose with Center Cupola Interior Painted Unlettered $107.05 This is a G Scale Center Cupola Wood Caboose (Unlettered) from the Big Haulers Series by Bachmann. Compatible with any G scale equipment. Detailed oxide red plastic body is molded to look like wood. Black roof roofwalk chimney ladders grab rails railings and brake wheel. No numbers or road name. Detailed interior may be seen through clear plastic windows on cupola and caboose body. All metal wheels. Operating couplers. Detailed chassis and underframe. Includes: One G Scale Center Cupola Wood Caboose (Unlettered). Scale: G (1/22.5). Length: 147/8 (37.8cm). Width: 41/8 (10.5cm). Height: 71/4 (18.4cm).

Caboose Mystery $10.27 Henry, Jessie, Violet and Benny used to live alone in a boxcar. Now they have a home with their grandfather and are spending the summer traveling on a train--in their own caboose, Number 777. On the trip, they encounter a strange mystery surrounding the history of their caboose!

Reading Four-Wheel Caboose $59.99 Reading Four-Wheel Caboose - Wall Decal

Washington - Union Pacific Caboose $19.99 Washington - Union Pacific Caboose - Premium Poster